Some 40 percent of children who use Internet in Russia visit pornography sites

Feb 27 2013

RBTH

Interfax

Half of Internet users younger than 14 in Russia have visited sites with "adult" content at least once, and most of these sites are porn sites, Russia's children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said.

"Our surveys show that more than half of users of various telecommunications devices and the Internet under the age of 14 have visited sites with undesirable content at least once," Astakhov said in his report at an international conference on the information security of children on Wednesday.

Related:

The children's rights ombudsman said one out of every five children who are familiar with undesirable sites watch photos and videos of scenes of violence and another 15 percent manifest interest in drugs, alcohol, and gaming sites.

"Nineteen percent watch scenes of violence, 16 percent engage in gambling, 14 percent of the children are interested in drugs, and 11 percent of such users visit extremist sites," Astakhov said.

Astakhov said children often use their mobile phones to visit undesirable sites because they consider it to be a personal and more secure device.

"Children believe mobile devices are personal and much more protected than computers. Polls show that some 90 percent of European children aged between 12 and 19 and half of the children aged between 9 and 12 have mobile phones," he said.

At the same time, Astakhov said Russia plans to launch a large-scale program to combat violence and cruelty in the mass media to resolve problems in the sphere of the media security of children next year.